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Appearance

Cui is an indigo-skinned, scaly, fish-faced alien. With the exception of his boots being green, he wears the common Battle Armor.

Personality

Cui is a rather cocky character who easily underestimates many of his enemies but has a cowardly side when confronted by an opponent too strong for him. He treats Vegeta with a great deal of rudeness and contempt and he seems to regard other Saiyans with contempt. Like many members of the Frieza Force he has no regard for the lives of other races and will kill for fun.

Dragon Ball Z

Frieza Saga

After Vegeta recuperates on Planet Frieza 79 from his fierce battle on Earth against Goku, Gohan, Krillin, and Yajirobe, Cui approaches Vegeta to give him some surprising news: Frieza is already on Namek and he is searching for the Dragon Balls alongside his top henchmen, Zarbon and Dodoria. Vegeta is furious about this because he hoped to collect the Dragon Balls for his own desire to obtain immortality. Cui mocks Vegeta, but this does not destroy Vegeta's confidence. In fact, Vegeta jumps into a space pod and speeds straight to Planet Namek in order to gain control of the situation himself, while Cui is left yelling and screaming after Vegeta, ordering him to stop. However, during this brief intermission, Cui gets the order from Frieza that he can freely eliminate Vegeta. Cui, who has waited for Frieza's approval for quite some time to eliminate his arch-rival, decides to take action by boarding a space pod and following Vegeta. Once they both arrive on Namek, Cui traces Vegeta with his scouter and comes face to face with him.

‎Cui claims to have gotten stronger and threatens that he will easily defeat Vegeta. However, Vegeta lets him in on a secret: his power level has increased substantially because of his previous defeat, and he also learned how to control its output and hide it. Cui expected Vegeta's power level to be approximately the same as his (18,000), but this was a complete underestimation of his archrival. Vegeta surprises Cui with his extremely high power rating of 24,000 and overwhelms him with an astounding demonstration of his aura, destroying Cui's scouter in the process, also frightening Cui. However, Cui decides to try and trick Vegeta, saying that Frieza was behind him and taking the opportunity to launch an array of powerful blasts. After the dust clears, Cui laughs and thinks himself the victor, but is surprised shortly thereafter when Vegeta appears behind him and tells him that his speed increased as well, since he was able to dodge the blasts in a split second. At this point, Cui decides to flee the battle, tripping as he frantically and fearfully dashes upward. Vegeta, being the ruthless warrior that he is, flies right after him. He slams Cui's stomach swiftly, cracking his armor and propelling him into the sky. He then smiles and mercilessly blasts Cui to smithereens in midair.

Film appearances

Fusion Reborn

Along with countless other Dragon Ball antagonists, Cui makes a cameo appearance in Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn when the residents of Hell make their escape to Earth. Cui escapes from Hell alongside dozens of villains from the past when Frieza gives the order to attack. However, he was presumably defeated again and sent back to Hell when Gohan comes to stop Frieza's onslaught.

Broly

Cui, or someone from his race, can be seen flying with Dodoria and Zarbon towards King Vegeta's palace on Planet Vegeta, when King Cold arrived to inform the Saiyans he retires and that the Cold Force will become the Frieza Force.

Other Dragon Ball stories

Dragon Ball Online

In the fifth Time Machine Quest, after Cui is defeated by Vegeta, his remains are found by Towa, who resurrects him and brainwashes him with a green Time Breaker stone. Towa reveals Cui to Time Patrol Trunks and his allies, and attempts to transform Cui into a giant for the battle but, due to her experiment not being complete, it causes him to shrink slightly instead. However, Cui's power is enhanced and Towa sends him to fight the Time Patrol. Cui manages to hold his own, but he is eventually defeated and killed once more.

Power

Manga and Anime

Cui states that Vegeta's power level should be equal to his own power; since Vegeta is stated to be 18,000 by Dodoria,[2] Cui's power level should be 18,000. In the anime, Zarbon and Cui himself both reference Cui as being stronger than Vegeta.

However, after Vegeta recovered after nearly being killed by the combined efforts of surviving Z Fighters during the Saiyan conflict, he was able to completely surpass Cui thanks to his Saiyan Power as well refining his ability to control his power (allowing Vegeta to suppress and raise as need be), thus allowing him to deceive Cui, who, like most of Frieza's army, relied too heavily on Scouter readings, before Vegeta showed off his newfound abilities and power, annihilating Cui despite his best efforts (even resorting to trickery, which failed due to Vegeta's superior speed).

Techniques and Special Abilities

Bomb Strike – First, Cui prepares a red aura around himself and flies at his opponent, crashing into them directly to inflict a moderate amount of damage.

Finger Beam – The user holds out their index finger and releases an energy beam from their fingertip. Used in the anime only.

Full Power Energy Wave – To use it, the user starts by charging an Energy Sphere in their hand(s). Then, they draw their hand(s) forward and fire the energy sphere in the form of an energy wave at the opponent, inflicting a great amount of damage. Called Dustard Impact in Dragon Ball Heroes.[3]

Continuous Energy Bullet – The user usually brings their arms to their sides, charges up ki, and then he throws his hands forward one after another as he rapidly fires many energy blasts.

Ah! Lord Frieza! – First, Cui charges at the opponent, but stops and backs away from them cowardly. Then, he looks behind his opponent and shouts "Lord Frieza!" making the opponent look away. While the opponent is distracted, Cui blasts them with a powerful barrage of reddish-orange energy waves, finishing with a powerful blast, inflicting a great deal of damage.

Flash Beam – Cui launches a barrage of energy blasts at his opponent and then releases a strong red ball of ki, which causes a massive accumulation of damage for his opponent. This attack was named in Dragon Ball Z: Goku Gekitōden.

Battles

Trivia

Cui's name in Japanese is an alternate spelling of the kiwi fruit.

Interestingly, Cui's dialogue with Vegeta on Planet Frieza 79 slightly differs in the anime and manga. In the English dub anime, Cui insults Vegeta for getting beaten by a low-class Saiyan (presumably referring to Goku). In the Original dub and manga, Cui insults Vegeta for allowing his comrades Raditz and Nappa to get killed on Earth.

Two other members of his race appear in episode 97 during the Frieza Saga. One of them was killed by the other when he insulted Frieza and took him for dead. The other held the rank of Commander and died as a result of a monitor explosion when one of the soldiers tried to read Goku's power level. On a related note, it's implied in this scene that Cui's species was nearly driven to extinction by Frieza and that Cui, the unnamed foot soldier, and the unnamed commander were the only ones left of the species (which was the main reason why the unnamed foot soldier had absolutely no love or respect towards Frieza and proudly declared him dead).

Cui's name is pronounced differently in both English dubs. In the Funimation dub, the "Cu" of his name is pronounced like a "Qu" and the "i" sounding like an "e". In the Ocean dub, the "Cu" is pronounced as such, while the "i" also sounds like an "e". This making the FUNimation dub's version sounding like "Cwe" and the Ocean dub's version sounding like "Cu-e". The name "Cui" is very close to the Ecuadorian delicacy known as Cuy.

In the Ocean Dub for the episode "Held Captive", the dialogue among the Mirror ship occupants made it seem as though Cui was supposed to be Frieza and that he had personally led the invasion when in reality he had just been invading the planet on Frieza's orders. This was most likely because, at the time Ocean dubbed the episode, Frieza had not yet gotten a formal debut.